1. Tim Bate of Skillin's Nursery wants you to know that our hydrangea shrubs are on sale through Sunday the 19th for 20% off. 

We have some beautiful new hydrangeas as well as some old favorites to check out. A healthy hydrangea is a great Father's Day type of plant--I know I would love one as a Dad!

Hydrangea--Great Gift for Dad; Great Plant for any Yard!

 Click HERE to see what else is ON SALE at Skillin's!  

2. Want to grow some healthy snacks for your kids (and yourself) so that you teach them to LOVE some great vegetables?

Plant Sungold tomatoes (we have the plants), Sugar Snap Peas (we have the seeds) and the small "Pickling" cucumbers (we have the plants). I chose these 3 because (1) I love them myself; (2) they are easy to grow; (3) they always taste really good! The Sungold tomatoes just melt in your mouth and as you pick them they are so sweet that most never make it in the house!

3. Speaking of vegetable gardening, Terry Skillin recently appeared on WCHS's local program "207" and gave out some great vegetable gardening tips. (And I have heard many rave reviews!)

 4.  Yes! Skillin's does site visits and landscape designs for you! Click HERE to find out more about this service. Advice from Chad Skillin can save you lots of time, clear up confusion about your goals in your yard AND save you money and aggravation!

 5. June in our garden is a busy time. We are often working with our plants that have been with us for years AND also incorporating new plants and ideas.  Good gardening friend Margaret of Away to Garden recently posted a great article called "5 Things to Read While I Savage My Garden".  It is a quick read and you will "identify" with this!

In her June Garden Chores, Margaret also make a great point about pruning shrubs:

"SPRING-FLOWERING SHRUBS like lilacs get pruned now. Later pruning (after July 4th here) risks damage to emerging buds for next year's blooms. Clean up unsightly deadheads of other big bloomers like rhododendron, things that don't make showy fruit next, so leaving behind their faded blooms is just messy. Viburnums, on the other hand, need faded flowers left intact to set beautiful, bird-feeding fruit." 

 6.  Mike's Must Have Perennial for the Week is the Baptisia Australis--aka the Blue False Indigo. It's blue spiky flowers are a standout in June. There is no flower quite like it! The plant is darned reliable and will be a cornerstone of your perennial garden for years to come. I love that!

A Mike's Must Have--the False Blue Indigo

7.  For even more June gardening tips (including more details about Mike's Must Have Perennial for the Week; a great product to strengthen your plants against disease and the return of Skillin's Moisture Meter) check out our garden blog--the Skillin's Garden Log!

Our 2011 nursery and perennial catalogs are now ONLINE! Check them out!